Building Ruby on Rails engines
Engines are one of the best ways to share functionality across Rails applications. Whether you're looking to extend your Rails application, modularize your project for better maintainability, or are just curious about the finer details, join us as we explore the intricacies of Rails engines.
This article dives into everything you need to know about Rails engines, from their definition to their types, popular examples in the real world, and even building your own.
A Rails engine is notably different than a Rails plugin, but they're similar enough to get mixed up. Plugins extend the functionality of an application, while they get fully integrated into the Rails application.
A Rails engine on the other hand acts as a small Rails applications that interfaces with your main application. Engines can have their own models, views, and controllers, while plugins have code that interfaces with and is called by your main Rails application.
Even the Rails guides call out that plugins and engines are similar. They point out that an engine can be considered a plugin and the other way around while noting that an engine is closer to a full Rails application than a plugin.
